2: Research - What's Important to Me

I was excited and couldn't wait to learn more about trikes. Looking around I found several excellent resources. The recumbent community, though not large when compared to the bicycle community, is quite vocal. A few things that struck a chord with me were steering style, adjustable seat angle, rear suspension and brake steer. These are things I hadn't even thought about when looking at the Cat.

Steering style is either direct or indirect. Direct has the handle bars coming right up off the steer tubes while indirect has them mounted, and swiveling, on the frame and tie rods connecting and directing the wheels. Most opinions agree that indirect feels more natural and a bit less "squirely".

Adjustable seat angle is just that, not fixed in one position. Though I had thoroughly enjoyed the position of the seat on the CatTrike, having the ability to adjust it for different conditions did sound like a good idea. Not just that, if it was adjustable it needed to be easy. I don't want to have a 15 minute tool-in-hand job each time I wanted a change.

Rear suspension would be nice. I knew that. Some suggest that a 26" rear tire eliminates the need for this but then you have the added issue of 2 different tubes to carry. Not a huge deal but if suspension wasn't too much more I'd probably want to go in that direction.

Brake Steer was a new concept for me. As the front wheels are typically the braking wheels on a trike and they are independently operated, some braking systems allow you to steer the trike by applying different pressures on each wheel. Sounds cool huh? Well on further reading it is actually a problem. If you break harder on the left wheel than the right you tend to steer to the left. As this occurs, inertia causes your weight to shift to the right, which is the less braking wheel. Basically, it mean a loss of control and this can happen even if you don't try to brake more on one side than the other, a wet brake shoe or a poorly adjusted/failing brake could cause you to take a turn into traffic. Minimal/no brake steer means you maintain control. Sounds like a really good idea to me.

Alright, I've got a list of things I want but I've got a budget too. Can I get them all? You bet I can.

Enter Inspired Cycle Engineering.

1: Introduction - A New Way to See The Sights

I love being out in the world riding bikes, hiking or touring on my motorcycle. However, over the years I've been doing a lot less biking due to numbness in my hands and soreness in my back and neck. It was time to make a change but I didn't know just what.

One day, while driving, a sign caught my eye for a bike store that specializes in recumbent bikes. I've seen these on the road more and more, even considered what it might be like to ride one, but never took any real steps towards researching them. I decided to stop in and take a look.

It was a rainy day so a test ride wasn't on the menu. I did get a chance to look at and sit on several different types of recumbents but the one that really caught my eye was a Cat Trike. The things I really liked about it was the balance of 3 wheels, angle of seating and, basically, the cool factor. Some may disagree with me but I think a trike can be the sportiest looking recumbent there is. I also liked the idea that your hands are relaxed at your sides and the seating is basically a lawn chair on wheels.

Well recumbents in general, and recumbent trikes in specific, do not hold a huge share of the bike market. This makes the price a fair amount more than a comparabily equiped upright bike. This, and the fact that I couldn't even test ride the trike, made me think that a little more research and time was in order before I made up my mind that this was the right choice for me.

I did, however, announce to my wife that I knew what I wanted for my upcoming birthday.